Things To Do With Maxtor Hard Drives
I saw this on YouTube and thought it was good enough to share! It’s got nothing to do with Maxtor drives, but given recent events (my hard drive failing) I’m really not a big Maxtor fan, so I figure this shows something worthwhile you could do with them.. as opposed to trusting them to keep your data safe..
Podcast 55: The One I Stayed Up Late To Do
Past 1am is no time to be going to bed at on a school night, but I was cleaning and tidying (like a tazmanian devil!) earlier, then Ty came round for a bit, so here I am - doing the podcast in the wee hours of the morning for your audible pleasure. I have to say, I’m kinda knackered - and I think it probably shows in the quality of this week’s show. Oh well, ho hum.. Leave feedback and berate me - I’ll try and do better next week?
Link: podcast55.mp3 (25:54, 11.9Mb)
In this week’s show:
iTunes: Don’t forget - if you like the My World Podcast, you can subscribe in iTunes and have it downloaded to your PC whenever a new episode is available! Click here for details.
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Are you a nerd, a geek, or a dork?
URL: http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=9935030990046738815
I took the test, and here’s my result:
Joe Normal
17 % Nerd, 17% Geek, 13% DorkFor The Record:
A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.
You scored less than half in all three, earning you the title of: Joe Normal.This is not to say that you don’t have some Nerd, Geek or Dork inside of you–we all do, and you can see the percentages you have right above. This is just to say that none of those qualities stand out so much as to define you. Sure, you enjoy an episode of Star Trek now and again, and yeah, you kinda enjoyed a few classes back in the day. And, once in a while, you stumble while walking down the street even though there was nothing there to cause you to trip. But, for the most part, you look and act fairly typically, and aren’t much of an outcast.
I’d say there’s a fair chance someone asked you to take this test. In any event, fairly normal.
The Last Kiss (AKA Depressing Movie)
I fancied seeing The Last Kiss when I saw the trailer for it a while back. And let’s be honest - Zach Braff is kinda handsome, no? I was talking to Alyson at work today and said I was seeing it tonight. She said it was awful, really depressing. “C’mon” I said, “Zach Braff - HELLO?!” but she stood firmly adamant saying it was just depressing, lots of screwed up relationships and people and stuff. Turns out, she was mostly right.
It is a depressing movie. But I wouldn’t say it’s a bad movie. I’d probably give it 7 out of 10, which is on par with IMDB’s current rating of 6.9 out of 10 (based on 792 votes). It made me cry too, in several places, which is kind of weird cos I didn’t go in there feeling too emotional but I guess stuff just struck a nerve. Favourite quote from the movie:
What you feel only matters to you, it’s what you do to the people you love that counts.
(PS: How much do I love the new “blockquote” tag I’ve obviously only just discovered?!)
Hmm.. I sit here, pondering what I’m trying to articulate.. half wishing I could just jack some cable in the back of my skull and have those thoughts and feelings instantly transmitted to you so you could just not and go “Ahh.. yes - I get it!”
Sure, some of it’s “the Brian thing” (PS, Brian: Go with options a, b, or c, probably in that order - or maybe reverse the first two.. the jury’s out on variety versus job satisfaction). Some of it’s “the me thing” (as in who am I, what am I doing, where am I going, who the fuck ever knows half that shit anyway, really?). And some of it’s probably me being slightly over-thinky (it’s been known to happen). But upon reflection, I think it probably comes down more to “the great unknown”.
Kira’s interviewing for a job in Ireland. “Come and move to Ireland with me!” she says.. uh, yeah.. right.. but what would I do? “Computer stuff!” she says.. uh, ok.. but what if I’m not sure I want to do computer stuff? :-s
In other news, I got a picture message on my mobile as I was going out for lunch. My mate John had a baby! I think it was actually due yesterday, I have the date September 18th in my head for some reason, pretty sure that was the due date.. Full on congratulations in order, obviously.. and it made me half laugh, half think.. isn’t it funny, that a guy I know from online, who lives 2000 miles away (2101 according to ask.com, or 2700 if you’re driving), who I’ve never actually met in person, I’ve chatted to on the phone a handful of times but mostly just chat to on MSN once in a while, cares enough to forward me a picture of his bundle of joy? Yeah, that’s cool.. good southern quality hospitality or personality or something.. I totally rate that - rate it a lot. Good on ya John & Sarah! Congrats on baby Kylie! :-)
International Talk Like A Pirate Day!
This was posted in the public announcements folder at work yesterday, and I meant to talk about it on my podcast yesterday but completely forgot. Here’s the posting:
Every September 19 people around the world celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day. It’s been marked on all continents — even Antarctica. Why?
Because it’s fun, it’s anarchic. Its very whimsy — trying to get everyone on the planet to talk like a stereotypical Caribbean buccaneer on the same day each year — sets it apart from other holidays.
The holiday had its genesis during a racquetball game between John Baur and Mark Summers, two friends in Albany, Oregon. It was a private joke that went around the world. The rest is, if not history, at least a good story, which you can read at their Web site http://www.talklikeapirate.com/.
To help you celebrate the day this year, we offer a sampling of words based on pirate lingo.
A note — I’ve often heard people talk about pirates’ “cockney accents.”
Wrong! The stereotypical pirate has a Cornish accent, based on the performance of Long John Silver by actor Robert Newton in the 1950 Disney version of “Treasure Island”. He was from Cornwall, and his over-the-top performance and native accent are the reason people think that’s what a pirate sounded like. Of course, pirates came from all nationalities. But the pop culture image is firmly embedded, and Robert Newton is the reason why.
So.. uh.. avast ye land lubbers! YARRRRRR! I’m off to swab the decks and write IVR code!
Podcast 54: The Fresh Install One
Last week I lost my hard drive (see previous blog entry for a scathing attack on Maxtor!) so this week I’m coming to you from a nice, clean, fresh install of your favourite operating system (and mine!) Microsoft Windows XP Professional. Which only takes like 45 minutes followed by downloading 59 patches and hotfixes and rebooting 17 times. Simple! Easy as pie! But enough about that - what’s going on in this week’s show?
Link: podcast54.mp3 (26:21, 12.1Mb)
In this week’s show:
iTunes: Don’t forget - if you like the My World Podcast, you can subscribe in iTunes and have it downloaded to your PC whenever a new episode is available! Click here for details.
Frappr Map: If you listen to the My World Podcast on a regular basis, you should add yourself to our Frappr map! Check it out at www.frappr.com/myworldpodcast.
Last night I downloaded the new version of iTunes. It installed, then merrily started running through some conversion process - something to do with zero gap playback or something. My PC went kinda wacky half way through and ended up freezing and not shutting down properly. Then it wouldn’t boot. The Windows XP scrolly bar thing would do it’s thing, then the machine would reboot. A bit of probing turned up the UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME error message. Uh, yeah - cheers for that then, sounds like my hard drive is fucked (technical term!)
Right now, having spent a few hours pissing around with it tonight, I’m pretty much resigned to the fact that my drive is fucked and I’ve lost pretty much everything on it. My initial thoughts of a corruption on my Windows XP installation, leaving my data partition all intact and unspoiled are long gone. Sure, I can boot in to my “play” partition and it mostly works (but I still can’t see my data drive). Yes, I can boot in to my Linux partition (and have it report a bunch of errors that point to hardware failure if I try to mount the data partition).
And the real kicker is… I’ve got my “storage server” sitting here.. and I bought a bunch of 300Gb hard drives to rebuild it with.. and I did.. copying the stuff on the old server over to my PC first.. only I never copied that stuff back for the most part. I copied a couple of PC and laptop backup images over, but I didn’t copy my music, my pictures, my old backup files, work bits and pieces. It’s pretty much all lost. And I keep remembering other stuff that’s also lost.. like my podcasts (luckily I have back ups) and the supporting bits of audio (of which I don’t). I could spin it with “Oh well, it ties in well with my ’simplify your life’ kick of cleaning and tidying that I’ve been doing lately” (threw out loads of magazines and shit) but who am I kidding? I’m pissed! I hate that I’ve lost shit and can’t get it back. I hate that I’m the techie guy who ought to know better yet didn’t practice what he preached.
Fucksake I HATE Maxtor. Their drives suck ass. From the four 40 gig drives I had in my storage server originally, one failed within the warranty period and I got it exchanged. Another one failed a couple of months outside the warranty period. And now this brand spanking new 160 gig SATA drive that was in my “new” PC has gone tits up. ARRGHHHHH it does my fucking HEAD in!
At the end of the day, sure, lesson learnt - backup important stuff, do it often, and preferrably to multiple places if you don’t have a nice storage server with a redundant array of disks.. but there’s really no use bolting the stable door after the horse has done a runner is there? In short, I’m kinda fucked for a while while I pick up the pieces, get a new hard drive, reinstall everything.. I can probably get the Maxtor warrantied, but honestly - do I want to? No.. I’d much rather have a hundred bucks and go out and buy some other brand..
*sighs* oh well.. onwards and upwards, right?
In other news - work was shit today, people are stupid, and to top it all off it’s pissing with rain and I think I need milk. FUCK! Just one of those days eh?!
I sat here half watching TV, half contemplating a suitable title for this week’s episode - and I really wasn’t hit with any large flashes of inspiration. So we’ll go with “The Average One”, cos I really didn’t feel that this week’s episode was anything epic or monumental.
Link: podcast53.mp3 (29:59, 13.7Mb)
In this week’s show:
iTunes: Don’t forget - if you like the My World Podcast, you can subscribe in iTunes and have it downloaded to your PC whenever a new episode is available! Click here for details.
Frappr Map: If you listen to the My World Podcast on a regular basis, you should add yourself to our Frappr map! Check it out at www.frappr.com/myworldpodcast.
Had I mentioned that I bought a Nintendo DS Lite last week? And that I’m loving it?
I picked up the unit with Tetris DS and Magnetica and have been enjoying both. Tetris rocks my world because you can play online via the Nintendo WiFi Connection - meaning you’re battling against other players around the world, rather than just playing against the computer. Magnetica is the game with the marbles pushing forward towards a hole at the end of a track. You throw marbles at the line and if you get 3 or more colours touching, they disappear. It’s like Zuma on the XBox 360, if you know what that’s like. Check it out here for videos of the game in play.
Sometimes after you’ve had some time off work, it’s nice to go back. Today was not one of those times. With the best intentions of being in work by 9am, I sauntered in just before 9:30. After 5 minutes I was slightly wound up. After 20 I was smiling but seriously ready to lose it with someone. No one thing in particular caused the angst, it was more like a million little tiny things, corporate stupidity a la Dilbert, with a dose of coworker annoyance thrown in for good measure. An hour later, enough was enough - time to hit Starbucks for a pink drink! I managed to round up Tomas, Simon, and Okhtay for a walk around the block, yet I was the only one who bought anything. Clearly my coworkers are easily persuadable when it comes to taking a break from the corporate grind and getting outside for a breath of fresh air ;-)
The rest of the day went pretty smoothly, hacked some code around, did some testing, had a meeting, came home. Hit the movies with Kevin after work and saw The Quiet. Good movie - Edie Falco was awesome in it, although some of the subject matter may not be everyone’s cup of tea (daddy fooling around with teenage daughter? uh, yeah, no thanks!). Out of 10? I’d probably say 7. It’s definitely “different” to a lot of the other stuff out there, and well worth checking out.
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